Week 2, January 7–13: Genesis 17–36

• Sun Jan 7:Gen 17–19
• Mon Jan 8:Gen 20–22
• Tue Jan 9:Gen 23–25
• Wed Jan 10:Gen 26–28
• Thu Jan 11:Gen 29–31
• Fri Jan 12:Gen 32–33
• Sat Jan 13:Gen 34–36

This week we continue reading in Genesis. After the early chapters of Genesis, the story narrows from the broad perspective of all creation to the story of Abraham and his family. In the chapters we’re reading this week, we read of God’s faithfulness to his promises to bless Abraham and to bless all humanity through him and through his offspring, or seed (remember Gen 3:15). The story focuses on Abraham’s son Isaac and Isaac’s son Jacob, because it is through this lineage that the promised seed will come.

We read Genesis as the first book of the Bible, but really it’s just part one of the first book of the Bible. The first book of the Bible is really the five-part book of Moses, the Pentateuch, or the Torah, Genesis through Deuteronomy. This is what the early readers thought of as the first book of the Bible, and it’s how the rest of the Bible refers to the opening part of Scripture (e.g. Josh. 23:6; Neh. 8:1).

It is helpful to keep this in mind as you read through Genesis. From this perspective, the first readers Moses had in mind when writing Genesis were the Israelites getting ready to cross the Jordan river and go into the promised Land. When they read these stories in Genesis—stories about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their travels and trials in Canaan and outside of it—they would be reminded of the Lord’s faithfulness to the promises he had made generations earlier. And we too can be strengthened in our trust of God’s steadfast love and the certainty of his promises.

As we keep working through the Pentateuch in our reading, we’ll come back again to this idea that Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are best read as one book of Moses.

Some of you will find time in the morning to start your day with Bible reading. For some, it works better to do it later in the day. Whenever you do it, it’s a habit worth practicing. Over the next couple weeks these write-ups will cover different aspects of what we are doing when we open up Scripture each day, and why it is valuable to do so. But for now, let me just suggest you get in the habit of praying briefly before starting your reading. You could simply pray and ask God to open your eyes to see and your heart to hear what he has said through his word. Ask him to help you understand what you are reading and to help you know him and love him more through your reading. Ask him to reveal areas of sin in your life or ways to put into action what his word says.

Here are a few verses from Psalms you could use to help guide these pre-reading prayers:

Psalm 25:4–5

Make me to know your ways, O LORD;

teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me,

for you are the God of my salvation;

for you I wait all the day long.

Psalm 86:11

Teach me your way, O LORD,

that I may walk in your truth;

unite my heart to fear your name.

Psalm 143:8–10

Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,

for in you I trust.

Make me know the way I should go,

for to you I lift up my soul.

Teach me to do your will,

for you are my God!

Let your good Spirit lead me

on level ground!